Welcome to Shamokin, PA
A Graveyard of Broken Dreams
Two kinds of people live in Shamokin – people born there and people who married people born there. If it’s all you know, it’s a hard place to escape.
Since they were teenagers, siblings Mitch and Owen had an escape plan – making it big with their band Sex Harness. Unfortunately, they’re approaching the wrong side of 30 and their band still hasn’t achieved escape velocity. Even worse, the locals who once cheered them are starting to pity these grown men still chasing childhood dreams.
Mitch stays committed to the cause, but Owen has seen his peers get jobs, get married, and start families. Now, he finds himself at a crossroads.
Owen has the opportunity to fast-track a family with his girlfriend Sade and her two kids from a previous marriage, but his move toward normalcy is a direct threat to Mitch’s rockstar ambitions. For the first time, the brothers aren’t harmonizing.
Shamokin! AKA Real America
Shamokin is the quintessential town that peaked in the 1950s and has been in decline ever since. Its infrastructure was built when American prosperity seemed assured, but Reaganomics have left it in disrepair. That’s probably why duct-tape and WD-40 are the top selling items at the local Dollar General.
But the people of Shamokin keep on truckin’ – literally. Driving truck is one of the only jobs that’s hiring … Until self-driving trucks arrive.
They’re like frogs who were born in boiling water – slowly being cooked, but oblivious to their fate … until recently.
They’re starting to wake up from the American Dream and face some harsh realities.
Every Generation Reacts Differently to
the Downsizing of the American Dream
Generation-X
Insecurities
Millennial
Grievances
Gen-Z
Snark
Gen-Alpha
Naivete
Through our diverse and multi-generational cast of characters we will explore
the decline of Middle Class prosperity with comedy, pathos, and familiarity
Rock & Roll Mitch
Mitch was born to be a rockstar. Unfortunately, he was born in Shamokin. In his 20s, he was the coolest thing to ever come out of Central PA. In his 30s, still stuck in Central PA and dressing like he did in his 20s, he’s starting to look a lot less cool.
He devoted his whole life to Sex Harness, so he’s unwilling to consider that his band might not happen – and, if it ever was going to happen, it would have been a decade ago.
Between gigs, he struts around Shamokin with dyed-black hair in stage-ready clothes, looking like an alien that crash landed on his way to the Whiskey-a-Go-Go.
He’s got a difficult relationship with his conservative father, but is enabled by his endlessly supporting mother and his younger brother/drummer. His sister ridicules him, but secretly identifies with his tireless ambition for something more.
He hates all non-rock music … except that song that Run DMC did with Aerosmith.
Owen
Just a few years younger than Mitch, Owen grew up in his brother’s shadow, idolizing him and adopting Mitch’s rockstar dreams as his own. As the drummer for Sex Harness, Owen keeps the beat, which is sort of the same thing he does for the Sawver family – keeping things going at a steady pace, whereas, if he’d stop, the dream would most likely die.
But Owen now finds himself with another family. His girlfriend Sade is widowed with two kids, so Owen is now thrust into the very adult reality of having a family and all of the concerns and responsibilities it entails.
Torn between worlds, Owen represents the tug-of-war between pursuing lofty dreams and making the most of reality.
Lou Sawver
Lou was born on the border of Boomers and Gen-X and reflects a bit of each generation. He’s a pragmatic, conservative guy who has worked since he was 14. His lifelong ambition was to own a house, have a family, and retire in his 60s – which people his age could sleepwalk into. Unfortunately, he doesn’t recognize that his success was due as much to the circumstances he was born into as his own hard work.
He is deeply devoted to his wife, which means that, as much as he criticises his kids, he quietly puts up with the way she coddles them and encourages their foolish ideas.
As his adult children continue to drain his retirement savings, and as he sees coworkers “optimized” out of jobs just like his, Lou is starting to feel insecure about his future for the first time in his life. Even so, he continues to blame the “lazy” generations that followed his for everything that’s wrong with the world, and refuses to recognize that the rules have changed and the game might actually be rigged.
Heather Sawver
Heather achieved the Shamokin dream. She married her high school sweetheart, had three kids, and … Hm. Was there supposed to be anything else?
She tells herself that she’s fulfilled, but deep down Heather is a creative soul. She likes to paint, and although she isn’t very good at it, her husband is super supportive. He even converted Mitch’s old bedroom into an art studio for her. I’m sure it had nothing to do with keeping his adult son from moving back in.
Heather gets a lot of satisfaction from supporting her sons and their band. She’s their biggest fan, much to the chagrin of Lou, who would prefer that they grow up and move on.
Is she doing it because she wants them to be happy or because she’s afraid if they grow up they’ll leave the nest forever? Nobody thinks to ask things like that in Shamokin.
Helix
Helix was born “Helen” but changed her name at age 12 when she dyed her hair pink and decided that Shamokin sucks. Now in the latter part of her high school career, she’s eyeing an exit and New York City is her dream. What will she do there? She’ll figure that out later.
Ten years younger than her brothers Mitch & Owen, Helix is from a different generation. She didn’t grow up idolizing rock stars; instead, she follows influencers. What she has in common with her brothers is ambition for something that rural America can’t provide, but what she doesn’t realize is that it’s just as hard now (or harder!) to escape the gravity of Shamokin than when they were her age.
She works at a past-its-prime electronics store in the mall while she waits for a job to open up at Hot Topic.
Yash
Helix’s boyfriend Yash moved to Shamokin from India when he was in elementary school so that his parents could pursue their dream of owning an Italian restaurant. Locals call it “the Indian restaurant” to differentiate it from the Italian restaurant across town that is owned by Haitians.
Why move to Shamokin? Because it was the only place where they could afford to buy property. They’re practically giving it away here!
Like his parents, Yash is optimistic about the American Dream – because America is still living up to its promise for them. Because Helix is so negative about Shamokin, he keeps his mouth shut around her and quietly agrees with whatever she says, but the reality is that he likes this town and still believes in America.
Sade
Sade is Owen’s girlfriend. She works as a traveling nurse who takes care of the infirm and elderly in their own homes. Her name is pronounced Sha-day, but her patients tend to call her Sadie and refuse to be corrected.
She’s from a Philadelphia suburb, but her deceased husband got a job at a prison near Shamokin, so her young family moved. After a few years, her husband died suddenly of a heart attack. With her kids enrolled in the local school and facing the challenge of finding a new job elsewhere, she decided to stay and make the most of her new home.
Brielle
Brielle is 12, which makes her old enough to remember her father fondly. This makes it harder for her to accept her mom dating a new man. Plus, she thought things were fine before Owen came around and would rather go back to that. She doesn’t realize how hard it is for a single mom to raise two kids in an economically depressed area.
When she isn’t giving Sade and Owen a hard time, she has her face buried in her phone … texting, or TikToking, or whatever kids do these days. She refuses to explain to people who “wouldn’t get it.”
Lamar
Lamar is 8, so he barely remembers his dad. He went from being surrounded by women to having another guy around to hang out with and play sports, or video games, or teach him about the comic books that his favorite movie superheroes came from – so he likes his mom’s boyfriend.
He thinks Owen and Uncle Mitch are cool because they play shows for literally tens of people – on a good night. He’s annoyed that he’s not allowed to say the band’s name since it has an inappropriate word in it, but he whispers it to the other kids on the playground to earn street cred.
Sex Harness
Voted “One to Watch” by subscribers of Rolling Stone’s February 2014 email blast, Sex Harness is a power trio that “reinvents rock & roll for the new Millennium.”
The band is fronted by the bombastic Rock & Roll Mitch on lead vocals and guitar, held down by Ragweed on bass, and driven by Owen on drums. It’s managed by Skunk, Mitch’s childhood friend who knows how to build websites and other business stuff too.
Sex Harness has put hundreds of thousands of miles (and several transmissions) into their van over the years. While they’re known to every dive bar owner from Jacksonville to Harrisburg, they’ve never managed to garner the kind of attention that would bring them a record deal – or allow them to afford health insurance.
One time an A&R intern from Universal Music Group came to a show, but that was the night that Mitch got into an argument with the sound guy at soundcheck, and that asshole totally sabotaged them.
Ragweed
When he isn’t rocking out on bass with Sex Harness, Ragweed likes to watch reruns of Frasier with his grandma – which is convenient, since he lives in a shed in her backyard. He used to live in the house, but had to give his bedroom to his twin children when his baby mama left them in Shamokin and moved to Florida to be with her new boyfriend – a roadie who once worked with Fall Out Boy. It’s for the best … since Grandma can buy them clothes, and feed them, and stuff.
Is Ragweed an idiot or an idiot savant? The drugs may have rewired his brain, which explains how he was able to rewire a faulty brake light to the dome light in the van, rescuing the band’s Fall 2017 East Coast tour. He had to flip the switch every time that Mitch applied the brakes, but he had nothing better to do between Georgia and Delaware.
Ax
Mitch’s prized possession is his guitar – which also speaks to him. It was once owned by Mongo MacDuggal, the legendary Australian guitar god who was supposed to tour with AC/DC on the Back in Black tour. Unfortunately, he died choking on someone else’s vomit at the age of 28 – just one year too old to be honored in the “27 Club” alongside Hendrix, Morrison, Cobain, and Joplin!
Made from the same wood as Australia’s finest didgeridoos, Ax is either possessed by Mongo’s spirit or Mitch needs to up his medication. Either way, Ax guides Mitch like a rock & roll Jiminy Cricket, keeping him on the side of “rock” and firmly against all that is “not.”
Use of Music
Big in Shamokin is first and foremost about surviving the modern world as a family, but music is integral to its DNA and interwoven with its stories.
Original music creates opportunities to go beyond the show, leverage social media and audio platforms, and to promote both the show and its network.
Story Springboards
1, 2, 3, 4!
Urine Trouble, Owen!
Owen keeps missing gigs due to his “stupid job” working with their dad, so Mitch comes up with a plan to spring his brother from the prison of a 9-to-5 by “helping” him to fail his company-mandated monthly drug test.
Mitch doesn’t want Owen to know (since his brother has been brainwashed by the man!), so it’s a covert operation to swap Owen’s clean urine for a tainted sample.
Further complicating things is the fact that Mitch doesn’t do any hard drugs and Owen has a medical marijuana prescription, so Mitch has to source piss elsewhere. Enter Charice, a working girl who is always up for an odd job.
Can Mitch make a piss switch without Owen finding out? And how pissed will their dad be if he finds out? It’s not just his family’s reputation on the line … it’s the cheese factory itself!
Delivery Wars
DoorDash, UberEats, Grubhub – delivery drivers have taken over town like a 1950s biker gang. They take all of the parking spaces, hog the space at the counters while talking loudly on their cell phones, treat restaurant staff and customers like dirt, and act like they own the place.
Mitch kicks a hornet’s nest when he gets into an argument with a delivery driver at Woffle Burger. Soon he and Owen are harassed around town by delivery drivers who box in their van, sabotage their orders, and make them a pariah from modern, gig-worker driven life. And nobody will come to their aid because they don’t want to become the next victims! Plus Sade isn’t having any of this shit – she needs her DoorDash!
Meanwhile, Heather forbids Lou from ordering burgers, “Because of your cholesterol!” But they’re so good! And it’s so convenient! So he takes to using a burner phone, an alias, and sneaking around to meet the delivery guy. Heather picks up on this suspicious activity, but concludes that her husband is having an affair.
Will the convenience of at-your-doorstep fast food drive the town and the Sawvers apart?
A Spooktacular Embarrassment
Lamar is tired of “doing all this work” every Halloween for candy and decides to turn a profit from trick or treating. While Sade is working, Owen is tasked with taking him house-to-house and becomes his unwitting accomplice as Lamar asks neighbors to “scan this QR code” and make a donation “to the kids” in lieu of candy.
Owen, initially excited to trick or treat, is disillusioned at the “fun size” candy that has replaced the candy bars of his youth. He is further disillusioned when he catches on to Lamar’s scheme, albeit too late. He doesn’t want Sade to find out that he failed this simple task.
“Look. We’re in this together now. You want my mom to find out we – you and me, went door to door and took people’s money? We robbed them blind, and you were the wheelman. Let’s make a deal – you keep the candy, I keep the money, and we both keep our mouths shut.”
Meanwhile, Mitch is pissed that Owen broke the tradition of all members of Sex Harness dressing as The Warriors for the annual Shamokin Halloween Spooktacular concert. Instead, that lame-ass Owen is doing a couples’ costume with Sade – as peanut butter and chocolate. “We can’t have a giant peanut on stage with us!”
The Shamokin Art Fair
Heather gets rejected from an art fair and decides to tear down her studio to give up painting for good, but Lou gets an idea – he’ll ask “The Big Cheese” at his factory to sponsor a Shamokin Art Fair. That way he can make sure Heather is featured!
Lou never rocks the boat when it comes to the cheese biz, so he floats the idea gingerly – but the factory’s owner is excited and all-in. BUT – if he’s sponsoring an art fair, the Big Cheese wants a big draw – so he invites international artist Alejandro Aladouché (“It’s pronounced Aladoo-shay!”) to show his work. He also wants it to be fun for all ages, and … “Don’t your boys have a band?”
Now Lou has to make sure the whole thing doesn’t blow up in his face, hurt the cheese factory’s reputation, threaten his job, AND that his wife feels good about herself. It doesn’t help that Alejandro Aladouché arrives with an extensive rider full of exotic items that Owen has to track down (in Shamokin!) and that he wants to totally “reimagine the concept of an art fair” – which means minimizing Heather’s space and visibility.
Phat Manatee
Mitch is stoked because Uncle Wayne is visiting. He’s his dad’s much cooler step brother who plays guitar and follows legendary jam band, Phat Manatee. Uncle Wayne even says he has an in with the band and they can hang backstage at their big Harrisburg gig. When Mitch finds out that his dad used to hang with the Manatee “back in the day” but has never brought up his past relationship with them, he’s both hurt and even more disappointed in how lame his dad has become in old age.
Mitch even blows off going to a baseball game with his dad in favor of hanging with Uncle Wayne, leaving Lou sad and alone at the one thing he and his son could always enjoy together.
When Uncle Wayne tries to score hard drugs from Mitch’s friends and then passes out on the night of the gig, Mitch re-evaluates how cool his uncle actually is. Lou saves the day by taking Mitch to meet Phat Manatee and hang on their tour bus, creating a new bond between father and son and giving Mitch new respect for his dad – whose straight laced, all-business demeanor is more in line with the Manatees than he ever would have guessed.
Meet the Creators
Luke & Daniel
Luke Watson grew up in rural Pennsylvania, but somehow managed to escape. He now travels the world as a global nomad, despite his grandmother’s pleas to, “Stay off of them airplanes and stay out of the subway!” She watches Fox News, so she knows how dangerous the world is.
Daniel Callaghan is a writer, artist, and animator hailing from the lost continent of Australia. He pursued higher education in America, but has since retreated to a land of nationalized healthcare. He envies us for our freedom – I assume.
Daniel leans into creative projects that build on his honour’s degree in novel writing and his passion for world building, while Luke’s creative work is inspired by a lifetime dealing with real-life kooky characters across fashion, music, and technology in big cities, and truckers, prison guards, and Walmart veterans in “real America.”
Together, their talent and abilities manifest in cartoons and swear words.